The new Presidential Coin, released to the public on February 15, 2007, is a gold-colored coin that is slightly larger than a quarter. The series, which will consists of four new coins produced each year, will honor the Presidents in the order of their terms. For 2007, look for coins bearing George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Because the Presidential dollar coin is only slightly larger than a quarter, it will probably be used in few magic tricks. Magicians tend to favor larger coins for visibility and it’s more impressive to spectators because it’s harder to hide a bigger coin.
Magic Possibilities
Because of the different presidents on the coins, there are possibilities for making a coin appear to switch presidents. There are many close-up effects where a paper dollar turns into four quarters, or a dollar coin turns into other coins, and it would be easy to perform something similar using the new Presidential coin.
Interestingly, the date, along with the traditional “E Pluribus Unim” and “In God We Trust” are inscribed on the coin’s edge. As a result, the coin has no milling. Despite this, I had no problems palming the coin in the “classic” method. In fact, I found no difference in palming the new dollar coin versus a standard quarter.
Sacagawea - Magic Flop
I have never seen a magician, professional or amateur, perform with either “Susan B. Anthony” or “Sacagawea” dollar coins. The only marketed effect that I can recall is one with the “Sacagawea” involving the sex of the baby on the coin and then squirting the spectator with water. A quick search across the web-based magic stores yielded no marketed tricks with either dollar coin.
I checked sources in my magic library and notable coin books such as Bobo’s “Modern Coin Magic,” Kaufman/Roth’s "Expert Coin Magic” and Futagawa’s “Introduction to Coin Magic” make no mention of the types of coins to use. In my library at least, I could only find a mention by Henry Hay in his “Amateur Magician’s Handbook” who recommends that magicians use half-dollars or silver dollars of the traditional size used in the earlier Eisenhower, Peace and Morgan dollars.
Traditional Silver Dollars
Personally, I use “Eisenhower” and “Peace” silver dollars in all of my close-up work. Interestingly, I use Kennedy half dollars and half-dollar-size palming coins in my stand-up “Miser’s Dream” routine. (My hands are too small to perform the coin-rollout with silver dollars, which is part of the routine.) While I could use the new Presidential dollar coins in my coins across and Three-Fly routines, there’s no reason to. I enjoy the visibility that traditional silver dollars offer.
I’m pretty sure that the new Presidential Dollar Coin will be of little or no interest to magicians. And will probably be of little interest to the general public. It’s going to mainly be for collectors who will want to stockpile coins that depict all of the presidents, similar to the US Mint program for state quarters.
I’m sticking with my traditional silver dollars.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto
